Good Fire with Neighbors.
The Nevada County Prescribed Burn Association is a community of landowners and volunteers who support each other's burns, share equipment, and build the local knowledge that makes prescribed fire safe and achievable in the Sierra Nevada foothills.
A Prescribed Burn Association is a community-led organization that helps landowners use planned, low-intensity fire to manage their land, clearing hazardous fuels, improving habitat, and reducing the risk of catastrophic wildfire.
The model is simple: members support each other's burns. When it's your turn to burn, trained volunteers show up with equipment and know-how. When it's your neighbor's turn, you show up for them. We work alongside CAL FIRE, the Nevada County Resource Conservation District, and other partners. Not around them.
This is neighbor-to-neighbor fire stewardship. The way it used to work, and the way it needs to work again.
Oak woodland, Sierra Nevada foothills — Nevada County, CA
The Sierra Nevada foothills are fire country. They always have been.
Nevada County sits at the convergence of oak woodland, mixed conifer forest, and working rural land — a landscape shaped by centuries of Indigenous burning and one that has grown increasingly fire-suppressed and fuel-loaded in recent decades.
We're a grassroots response to that reality. Based in Nevada County and focused on the communities, ridgelines, and watersheds that define it.
You’re not hiring a service.
You’re joining a community.
Landowners lead
Landowners with burnable land connect with NCPBA to explore whether prescribed fire is right for their property. You plan and conduct your burn. We help you get there.
Members show up
When it's your burn day, NCPBA members show up with the right equipment and experience to make your burn safer and more achievable. And when your neighbor burns, you'll be part of that crew too.
The community grows stronger
Every burn builds local knowledge, deepens neighbor trust, and adds one more trained hand to the network. That's how a burn association actually works.
This only works if you're in it.
NCPBA isn't a service you hire. It's a community you join. Bring your land, your labor, or both.
NCPBA is a fiscally sponsored project of the Nevada County Resource Conservation District, a trusted local conservation authority serving Nevada County since 1946.